


Not a Damsel in Distress

by Joel7th



Category: Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dragons, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-05 14:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14046081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joel7th/pseuds/Joel7th
Summary: Arjuna has a person he needs to rescue from the evil dragon’s claw. You may think it’s a beautiful princess because that’s how a normal fairytale goes. In some way, it is, as Arjuna is a young, valiant and handsome prince. Still, even if he manages to defeat the dragon, he’s guaranteed not to have his happily-ever-after ending where they ride off into the sunset. Why? Because the person he’s going to save is not a damsel in distress.





	1. Chapter 1

 

Here is how the story goes: A Young, Handsome Prince rode over mountains and rivers on the back of his trusted stallion. Many an obstacle had he overcome until he arrived at the Evil Dragon’s lair. There the Prince valiantly fought the Evil Dragon in an epic battle that lasted for days and at last, slain it. Exhausted but elated, he marched to the Beautiful Princess and asked for her hand in marriage. And then they lived happily ever after...

Arjuna was the hero of that story. True, he was a prince, a young and handsome one, who would one day inherit the throne from his queen mother and rule over the kingdom. True, he had ridden over mountains and rivers, fought malaria and swamps of bloodthirsty mosquitoes and overcome unspeakable dangers to fight an evil dragon (no capitalization, please). True, he had a person to rescue from said evil dragon’s claw and bring back to his kingdom.

His story should have gone like that, except it didn’t, due to two major alterations. First, it wasn’t a beautiful princess whom he had to rescue, it was a beautiful prince. And before your shipping tendency runs amok with several (titillating) scenarios, that beautiful prince was his own brother, born to the same mother. Okay, _maybe_ that was fetish-fuel for some of you out there but we just leave it at that. Eight years senior to Arjuna, his brother should have been the heir to the throne, and he had been reared as such before an unfortunate incident occurred.

The memory of that fateful day was still fresh on Arjuna’s mind even though he had been but a snotty seven-years-old back then. And it would likely persist until the end of his life.

It had happened too fast and too sudden that all the little prince could do was watch, eyes wide and mouth agape, his rational thinking scattered in the gentle breeze that was supposed to soothe the intense summer heat even just a little. He was strolling to the grand garden to find his elder brother to show him how immensely his skills with the bow had improved since last time – had always both envied and admired his brother’s archery – when a gigantic shadow glided over his head and blocked out the sun. Frozen in fear, the little prince was rooted on his spot, panicking with a thought that a huge chunk of the sky was falling to the earth. Then, out of the periphery of his eyes, the dark shadow descended and revealed itself to be a magnificent beast. Its body, covered in obsidian scales, glittered in the sun, its eyes were liquid flame and there was smoke rising from its nostrils as its long, thick tail the size of Arjuna’s body was beating the ground with leisure rhythm. There was no doubt the whole garden would be incinerated with a single breath of its. So horrified Arjuna was that his awareness of his surroundings seemed to shut off and he didn’t register that the beast had grabbed his brother in its claws – big enough to completely engulfed him – and flapped its enormous wings to fly away. Only when the cacophony of screams from the guards and servants flung the palace into chaos did he finally snap out of his paralyzed trance.

His queen mother had cried her eyes out for days, abandoning all hope that her firstborn could survive such malevolent fate, but Arjuna hadn’t shed a single tear from that day on. His sockets remained dry as his hope that Karna was somehow still alive flooded his small heart and his resolution solidified: there would come a day when he slayed that sinister dragon and rescue his brother, bringing him home. Such rock-solid resolution had fueled his endless effort to perfect his skills with the bow so that in a span of eight years, he had become unparalleled in the entire kingdom. By the time he entered adulthood, he couldn’t find a single opponent in the neighborhood kingdoms. And so he believed that he was ready.

No amount of tears or threats of disowning from his queen mother could have deterred the young prince from setting off on a perilous quest to find the lair of that cursed dragon.

As he laid under the dense canopy during the nights on his journey, Arjuna had all the time to conjure several scenarios in his sleepless, flaring mind. He imagined his battle with the dragon, lasting for days without coming to a definite conclusion, where he would many times be pushed to the edge of death. He imagined his hard-earned victory that was finally achieved with a streak of luck, and himself, worn out and battered, finding enough strength in his lethargic limbs to dash to his brother, who was emacipated and weak but by a miracle still alive after ten years in captivity. He imagined wrapping his arms around that bony frame, pressing his face into Karna’s rib-prominent chest and crying his ten years’ worth of suppressed tears. He imagined his defeat, an inevitable outcome that he had been aware but not anticipated due to his burning desire to save Karna and his mortal arrogance in his skills. He imagined himself being torched alive in the dragon’s flame, his lonely scream piercing the sky while his brother could only stand aside and watch his renewed hope die. He even imagined himself reaching the dragon’s lair after unspeakable hardship along the way only to discover that Karna was long gone from this world, and that his zealous training all these years for this moment was utterly meaningless. He imagined the despair afterwards sucking away all of him until he was left a dry husk of a human.

Of all the scenarios he had constructed in his mind and then demolished to mold a new one, what he saw after climbing to the peak of a rocky mountain range was not one of them. Time seemed to have swirled back to the day he had witnessed Karna’s capture, and the young, valiant prince was suddenly replaced by the shaken and powerless seven-year-old boy who could do nothing other than staring while his brother was being taken away. His jaws dropped to the ground, together with his heart. His courage and his will to fight all fled him in one huge swoop, rendering him an empty sack where all the rice had flooded out.

What was he seeing that produced such extreme reaction?

He was seeing his brother, Karna. Compared to his memory, Karna had grown older – that was to be expected, and bigger, with some refined muscles in display where his garment, looking somewhat tattered and faded, didn’t cover. His face had lost its baby fat and gained more defining features, his jawline had gotten sharper and his cheekbones more prominent. The Karna in Arjuna’s memory had been beautiful and his beauty had straddled the line separating genders, making him an object of both covet and envy. There were more than a couple times when Arjuna had overheard the officials whispered amongst themselves how Karna’s visage was lacking the imposing assets of a future sovereign, and that it would have been marvelous if he’d been born a princess instead. Made Arjuna want to put an arrow through their disrespectful skulls every time. Karna would have made a wonderful and just king, who would have seen through their lies and deceit as though they had been transparent. No one could have convinced Arjuna otherwise.

What came as the biggest surprise was that Karna was laughing. Not a polite, close-mouthed smile he had been known to show almost everyone in the palace, his little brother not being an exception; rather it was an uninhibited laugh that put his perfect, pearly white teeth in display. And the sound... Arjuna couldn’t recall any occasion where he had heard such melodic sound; the tall walls of the palace had forbidden it, and crushed it before it ever had a chance to be heard.

He would have been overjoyed to see his brother alive and well and all grown up; he would have rushed to his side and embraced him and told him how blissful that he’d finally found him and now he would bring him home and restore his birthright as a true heir to the throne – his miraculous survival would be sung by countless poets so that it would last for hundreds of years and beyond. He did none of those; instead Arjuna stood like a stone statute, with only his eyes alive and moving to watch his brother being embraced in the muscular arms of a man. _Not a man_. On closer inspection, Arjuna didn’t miss the pair of sharp-looking curved horns protruding out of his wild silver mane. Nor did he fail to notice the patches of dark, glittering scales littered on bare skin or a long, thick tail wrapping around Karna’s ankle in an almost possessive manner. ‘Almost’ because the tail wasn’t acting as a shackle to keep him from moving; it coiled and uncoiled, and moved up and down his calf, mimicking a hand to caress his skin and produce his laughter. That his reserved, somewhat distant and cold brother would allow such physical contacts shook him so terribly that it took a while for the strangeness to finally get into his brain. What was this... man (that was a stretch) who possessed physical traits of both man and beast? Arjuna had never seen anything like that before, and he had never thought the existence of something as peculiar as this possible. None of the documents about magic and mystical beasts he’d spent hours perusing every day without fail had mentioned it. At least the ‘white’ documents had not. There were a couple ‘black’ ones his wise and senile master had kept out of his reach both physically and metaphorically. There was always a dear price to pay for ones who dabbled into the dark arts, he had said with a forlorn expression hinting a personal experience. Now Arjuna somewhat regretted that he had not dared to defy his master’s words.

In his startlement Arjuna had let it slip his mind that he was stepping into a supposed dragon’s lair and thus he should be cautious with every move. He stepped back unconsciously and stepped on a branch that was just inconveniently positioned underneath his soles, and the result was a dry, cracking sound announcing his unwanted, invading presence. The beast-man was instantly alert when his eyes, red and gleaming like embers, focused on Arjuna, causing his heart to skip a beat. Letting go of Karna, he stood to reveal a tall, intimidating frame with a pair of black wings as big as himself wide-spread. A pattern that resembled some sort of magic rune began from his abdomen, stretched to cover most of his chest and reached his cheek. As the pattern glowed with menacing light, sickening noises of bones cracking entered the prince’s ears and he started transforming into Arjuna’s childhood nightmare of nostrils flaring, obsidian scales glittering and eyes like two orbs of molten lava reflecting the young prince’s fear and helplessness right back at him. The dragon that had abducted his brother while he watched in silence, his blood cloyed in the overwhelming terror that he would be the beast’s luncheon, his flesh and blood and bones all devoured, leaving nothing left. His sweat-soaked recurring nightmare. His relentless pistol that kept pushing and pushing him towards his goal of slaying it. But Arjuna was no longer a green boy playing with swords and bows; he was a prince and a warrior, armed with his well-honed skills and a lethal weapon blessed by gods. So he would fight and if the gods were kind, he would emerge victorious. He took an arrow from his quiver and notched it on his bow. Already its slender body was glowing with the blue light that was signature of his power. As he aimed – but actually didn’t need to since it was impossible to miss a target of that size, he could feel his magical energy swirling around the body of the arrow like a miniature tornado, buzzing at the iron tip, aching to be released.

“Stop!”

A voice was a cool bucket dumping on Arjuna’s boiling spirit. His brother, who from the moment the beast-man’s transformation had been covered entirely by the dragon’s massive body, walked out and stood between them. With a loud ‘whoosh’, his magical energy dispersed, reverting it to a normal arrow of wood and iron that wouldn’t pierce through the dragon’s armor-skin. The position Karna had chosen was just too perfect in shielding the dragon’s heart that if Arjuna wanted to let the arrow fly, it would go through Karna’s chest first and had its powered halved, thus unable to obliterate its intended target. And with an arrow imbued with magical energy to kill a phantasmal beast... he didn’t dare to imagine what would become of his brother if he got hit.

On the other hand, it could be Karna’s intention to stand between them; he had been rather... close with the dragon from Arjuna had seen and it should come as no surprise that he didn’t want any harm done to it, even if that meant putting himself in risk. The thought that his own brother, a prince and a noble man, would be in cahoots with a beast sparked a flame in Arjuna’s heart and the sight before his eyes quickly fanned it into a fire. His throat constricted and every swallow ached. His tongue tasted acid and copper.

On the other side, the dragon appeared to be no less impatient than Arjuna himself, as its huge clawed feet continuously carved long gashes into the soft earth. Its jaws were open, baring ragged teeth and smoke escaped from the depth of its throat like an active volcano. Nevertheless, no matter how it stood there fuming, the beast had not made a move, staying obediently still behind the small human as if in the dragon’s eyes, the human somehow had acquired the status of an unbreakable steel wall. Karna caressed its snout and spoke to it in low enough volume that Arjuna couldn’t hear. Whatever came out of his lips had a calming effect on the agitated dragon, and the beast closed its eyes and rubbed its oversized forehead against his palm. The sharp scales were sure to scratch his skin but Karna’s smile was nothing but indulgent.

If only his brother had ever graced him with that kind of smile...

“Why are you protecting that monster? Answer me, Karna!” Arjuna spat, his emotions a tidal wave rolling in his chest.

The dragon grunted and it looked like it was about to charge forward, triggered by Arjuna’s emotional tone, but a small, firm hand held it in place, both literally and metaphorically. Karna’s stoic expression broke by a dash of surprise. Then in a voice deeper than Arjuna’s memory he asked, “Who are you?”

Never had Arjuna known a three-word answer could have such heavy impact on a person. He felt tears pooling at the rims of his eyes like a seven-year-old who got picked on by his elder sibling, except he wasn’t a boy and Karna had never bullied his younger brother. Closed up and always just a little out of Arjuna’s reach but not abusive; such was beyond his kind nature. Arjuna clenched his hold on the bow so hard his palm was molded after the shape of its body to keep his tears from falling. He couldn’t afford to look childish in front of his Karna, whom he had come to rescue; he wanted him to see how he had grown and that he was dependable.

The thought that Karna might not remember his brother had not once crossed Arjuna’s mind during his sleepless nights. He didn’t know from where he had extracted such confidence that Karna would always recognize him no matter how long they had been separated and how much both of them had changed; he had only had a firm belief. Now his belief came to bite him hard.

“It’s me, Arjuna,” he tried, “your brother who always sneaked out and tagged along to every of your archery training.” As he spoke, Arjuna summoned the scenes of his childhood in his head, clinging onto a faint hope that ten years in captivity had not robbed Karna off his unique ability, and that he could pick up his thoughts like he had always been able to before Arjuna even said a word. “And you indulged me, never slipping a word to Mother. Sometimes you taught me a thing or two about the bow although the bow was too big for me. You even gave me a bow tailored made for my size and strength so that I could practice. But I didn’t have a chance to show you how I had improved...”

By the time he finished what was compressed in his heart, Arjuna was painting, and his hands hold the bow and arrow were quivering. He wasn’t sure if he still had the power to shoot anymore.

The surprised expression gradually faded into realization. Karna opened his mouth but only to exhale. His piercing eyes were fixed on Arjuna’s face, trying to compare this young man’s features with the memory of his previous life, inevitably subjected to the steady erosion of time.

Ten years was indeed a long time and it took more than a few vaguely familiar traits to retrieve what was mostly lost. Yet he did catch the stream of images Arjuna had wished he could. It ran in front of his mind’s eyes like the scenes on the stages, only they were mute and featuring only two actors. A little dark-haired, dark-skinned boy tailing his pale brother, who from his point of view looked so tall, so big. The boy hugged his customized bow close to his chest, grinning so hard the sides of his mouth hurt. The boy clutched the body of the bow in his tiny arms and shot arrow after arrow at his target on a tree, never minding that his shoulders were starting to numb from overexertion...

Karna knew that boy, knew when he had arrived at this world, when he had had his first walk, first teeth, knew his laugh and his cry.

Karna knew him and the young man before him was one.

His lips moved and a name was pronounced, “Arjuna.”

_To be continued_

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Arjuna couldn’t help marveling at the inside of the giant cave Karna led him in even though his eyes were blurred with rage and confusion from what had happened. It was only a few minutes ago and yet, somehow it felt like a whole lifetime to Arjuna. Rage clouded judgment and brought forth confusion while confusion birthed more rage, but after all they were just human reactions in response to the situation, which was nothing but extraordinary.

On the other hand, Karna’s reaction to seeing his long-lost brother after a decade was nothing like Arjuna’s expectation. After a brief expression of surprise at first, Karna regained his composure entirely too quick. Turning to the dragon, he spoke in a language foreign to Arjuna’s ears, something he had never heard from his brother back in the days at the palace. Although he did grasp some vocabulary as it seemed to be comprised of lexis from the spell-casting language, which Arjuna was unfortunately not well-versed, he failed to decode the meaning of the sentences. When and who had taught Karna this language he was so fluent was beyond Arjuna.

From the look of it, the dragon comprehended what he was saying the way Arjuna could not. It shook its head and blew smoke from its nostrils in what Arjuna could vaguely interpret as disapproval, and Karna, gentle and patient as though placating a pertinacious kid, kept speaking to it while patting and caressing its snout, his pale hand contrasting with its sleek scales. He looked so small and fragile compared to the beast that it could swallow him whole without him putting up any struggle. And yet it didn’t, and instead listened to his reasoning with the same amount of patience he’d been giving it. Much as he detested it, Arjuna couldn’t suppress the feeling of awe invading him as he witnessed the man-to-beast communication.

At last, the dragon yielded to the human. The giant mass of scales shook and the unnerving noises of bones breaking filled the silence for a while before the half-dragon man stood beside Karna in the beast’s place as if there had never been one in the first place. He focused his attention entirely on Karna, who regarded with a firm look and a reassuring smile. A few more foreign words were exchanged before his attention abruptly turned to Arjuna. Under the stare containing the heat equal to molten lava, young prince’s muscles tensed in alert, instantly ready for a strike. Clutching his bow, he held his head high and kept his ground while countering with a frigid look. His innate pride as a prince and dignity of a warrior would not let him be intimidated no matter whom he faced, man or beast. Fire clashed with ice, and the air between them sizzled. The barren land could turn into a battlefield any moment.

The decisive battle Arjuna prepared himself for didn’t come, for the dragon-man let out a frustrated grunt and turned away, spreading his menacing-looking wings to fly into a sky. The turn of event baffled Arjuna, who turned his eyes to Karna in a silent request for an explanation.

Karna, on the other hand, didn’t meet Arjuna’s questioning gaze as he was fixated on the dragon man until he became an unrecognizable dot. Only then did he turn to his little brother and said, “I asked him to go hunting so we could have a conversation alone. He disagreed at first but eventually complied with my request because I swore you would not harm me. Now, come with me inside.”

That explained the heated stare. Although they were different as chalk and cheese, Arjuna found that relatable – he would have acted the same way if he had been in his shoe. That might be the only common between them.

With that in mind, Arjuna followed Karna’s steps into the cave.

...

Deep into the rocky mountains’ bowel, the cave that served as a dragon’s den was huge, and it could easily house the entire garden in his palace. Even so, the size was not what impressed Arjuna; his surprise stemmed from his quick observation that it was more than just a cave for a dragon to hoard its treasure. Though only spartanly, it was furnitured to give the illusion of a human home with a low bed, a big chest, a table and some crude chairs. All of them looked like they had been either scavenged from a trash dumpster or made by awkward hands. There were several kinds of fur on the bed to keep its occupants warm during winter as the weather here was harsher than it was on the plain. It was just the beginning of autumn and Arjuna already felt the budding chill. Strangely, the temperature seemed to affect Arjuna only, whereas his brother looked comfortable wearing thinner garment. Scanning the space, Arjuna didn’t find a fireplace or anything similar to keep a fire. He couldn’t imagine the dragon breathing fire every second to warm the space.

Still, this was, after all, a dragon’s den and so there was treasures anywhere his eyes landed. Being a prince bathed in luxury since birth, the sight of gold and precious jewels was not unfamiliar with him; what shocked Arjuna was the careless manner in which they were treated – piled up in a corner or scattered around the cave, as if their value amounted to nothing more than pebbles. To think how many men would risk their lives and spilled others’ trying to obtain such wealth was absolutely insane. Arjuna bent and picked up what appeared to be a ruby next to his feet. Although it looked unrefined, it was unmistakably the purest kind of ruby since the magical energy emitting from it – all kinds of jewels did – was undiluted and it warmed up his palm the moment it made contact with his skin. With a muted sigh, he threw it atop the nearest pile. He might not be swayed by this temptation, for his reason to arrive here had not been finding treasures, but the same couldn’t be said about other mortal men. Arjuna wondered if Karna and the dragon had ever had to defense themselves against such men, and what fate had befallen those with greed-tainted hearts.

Arjuna looked up and saw that Karna had stopped in his track to look at him with confusion in his eyes. Then he realized in his train of thought, he himself had stopped and stayed rooted in his spot, prompting Karna to halt as well and wonder why Arjuna had ceased his steps. Just when his mouth was about to mutter an apology, he was struck with the sight of his brother, who was clothed in simple, unadorned garment and wearing no ornaments and somehow managed to outshine all the glittering gold and jewels around. He was standing there emitting a natural glow that was unique to him and all Arjuna saw was him and nothing else. This was the brother he remembered, the memory embedded in his mind that occasionally manifested in his dreams. The young, radiant and quiet prince who commanded others’ attention even when he himself did not wish to, that was Karna, and Arjuna was overjoyed that it had not been lost. Feelings swelled in him until he could stand it no more and cut the distance between them to pull Karna into his embrace, burying his face in his chest. In his selfish bout he didn’t care that he might cause discomfort to Karna, even pain; all he wanted was get as close as possible to his brother.

Karna was stiff as a block in Arjuna’s arms since he wasn’t prepared for such strong emotional outburst, yet he didn’t have an extreme reaction like pushing him away or protesting, and that was the salve to Arjuna’s wounded heart.

That it was awkward letting his arms hanging on the sides of his body while being held was probably Karna’s thought, so he brought them up to pat Arjuna’s back in an even more awkward manner. Yet such gesture stirred up the depth of Arjuna’s soul and brought the suppressed emotions to the surface. He hid his quiet sobs in his brother’s chest.

Eventually, his emotions subsided and Arjuna regained his composure and he let go off Karna but still kept a close distance with him.

“You’re indeed Arjuna,” Karna said. “Now I remember he sometimes hugged me like that. Back then he barely reached my chest, and now you’re almost taller than me.”

“I prayed every day and tried to grow fast so I could go search for you. I have so many questions to ask.”

“Why don’t we sit down? It’s uncomfortable to stand and have a conversation.”

“Is this where you’ve been living for the past ten years?” Arjuna asked once he had sat down opposite to Karna.

“Yes, this is where _we_ ’ve been living,” Karna stressed. “It can’t compare to the palace but as you can see, it has the bare necessities.”

The corner of Arjuna’s mouth quivered as he ground his teeth to push his swelling anger down. He couldn’t afford to raise his voice to his brother.

“I’ve known you to be the one who doesn’t indulge in riches and wealth, but the palace is your home and I’ve come to bring you back. While that dragon isn’t present, let us leave this desolate place behind.”

Standing up, Arjuna grasped his brother’s hand in order to pull him to his feet. It wasn’t his motto to turn tail from a powerful threat; still, getting Karna back home safe and sound ranked top in his list of priorities. For that, he didn’t mind being a coward for once.

Karna didn’t budge, to Arjuna’s shock. His expressions were serene but his mouth was set in a straight line, giving off an air of determination. He should have figured it out already, that Karna didn’t want to leave. If he could persuade the beast to go away like he had done, he could have escaped several times had he wanted to. The only matter was he hadn’t, and instead of finding the way back, he’d made this cave his home, just like instead of loathing the dragon, his capturer and tormentor, he’d chosen to stay by its side. Why? Because Karna had... The rational part of Arjuna had come up with a clear answer but the emotional part, the stronger part, had banned him from reaching it. In a way it was his defense mechanism to be in denial in order to shield his psyche from the impactful reality. So he was confused, he raged and he asked, “Why, Karna?”

“I appreciate, no, I’m grateful that you’ve come for me, Arjuna, but I cannot come back. In fact, I _will_ not come back with you. I am sorry, truly sorry.”

Something in Arjuna just popped. “I don’t want your apology! So don’t give me that. Give me a reason why you want to stay with the beast that took you away from your family, from humanity? What spell has that beast put you under for you to turn your back on your brother? Has you been living with a beast for so long you’ve forgotten who you are?”

In front of Arjuna’s accusation, Karna didn’t flinch. Nor did he look affected. His features remained as tranquil as a lake on a windless day, and Arjuna’s stormy emotions were just a pebble that failed to create a ripple. Arjuna was unable to read what thought running beneath that surface.

“I cannot be saved, Arjuna,” Karna began after waiting patiently for Arjuna to vent, “because I was already saved years ago by a wandering knight name Siegfried.” A pause. “The very same man whom you call a beast.”

“Wh-What?” Arjuna stammered. “What do you mean?”

“I was indeed captured and held in captivity by a dragon for months. I tried to escape but to no avail. Then one day a wandering knight showed up at the dragon’s den. He battled the dragon for days until he was able to land a fatal blow. The dragon was slain, I was freed but there was no happy ending, for there was another twist.”

“What twist?”

“He was bathed in the dragon’s blood and as soon as the flame devoured the fallen dragon, he began to transform into one.”

Arjuna paled, finding what he heard unbelievable.

“I don’t know if it was the dragon’s blood or its death on his hands but a curse was placed and it was irreversible.”

“How come? Such a thing has never been in the records—”

Arjuna stopped himself. The reason why there was no record of men turning into dragons was because dragons were incredibly rare to begin with and those dragon slayers might have all turned into the very beast they had slain, waiting to be killed by the next generation of dragon slayers. Such vicious cycle might have been going on since the dawn of the world.

It might have been his own fate had he managed to extinguish the dragon’s fire. A chill crept down his spine and sweats gathered in his palms.

“Even so,” Arjuna hesitated, his tone weighed down by his guilt of the cruel things about to pass from his lips, “even so, you cannot stay here your whole life. Your place is the palace, on the throne as the rightful heir.”

_Not inside a mountain cave with a man-turned-beast that couldn’t be saved._

“It is not,” Karna flat-out denied.

“Why? Is it because you feel indebted to him that you stay with him? We, we can repay him... somehow. We can find some mages to help him. There has to be a way to break the curse! Every magic spell has a loophole, I’ve been told.”

Even Arjuna found what he just said unbelievable. A cruel, blatant lie that disgusted the utterer and might not convince the listener. Arjuna despised liars and their deceptive words, and so lying was beyond him. Now he was one, and he lied wearing a straight face and a matching tone. If Karna looked into his mind, he would see through his dishonesty. Arjuna hoped he did. He hoped Karna, with his perceptiveness, would peel off the thin layer of lie and reach down to his earnest wish for his brother’s return. He hoped it would invoke Karna’s desire to be home and reunited with his family, buried deep by years of lacking any resemblance of social interaction.

Karna only sighed, his expressions unreadable. “He should have transformed completely into a dragon, losing his human mind, but by sheer will and a streak of luck, he has been able to retain his mind and achieve a hybrid form. His humanity hanging by a thread, so he has to be careful.”

“So that he won’t turn into a dragon and lose himself?”

“Precisely.”

“You’re afraid your leave will send him over the edge. Is that not another form of imprisonment?”

If that was the case, Arjuna was ready to fight. He’d face the full wrath of a dragon head-on if that meant Karna was freed.

“I assure you, it is not,” Karna said. “He urged me to come back to where I came and when I didn’t, he asked me many times if I had stayed with him out of fear or gratitude. I pondered the question and eventually I realized it was neither.”

“Then why?”

“Because he and I, no, we are two of a kind and we can only have each other.”

“What do you mean?” Arjuna was dumbfounded by Karna’s reason. Siegfried had turned into a dragon but his brother was human, how could they be ‘two of a kind’? Biologically, fundamentally, they were different. “Has the dragon curse affected you also?”

“No, it hasn’t,” Karna replied. “Siegfried shouldered the curse alone because he dealt the final blow. I wished I could have shared its weight but it was impossible.”

Karna paused briefly before continued, “Even though Siegfried has a humanoid form, he’s lost his human voice. Such is another aspect of the curse that his speech would be forever lost on a human ear.”

“But you can communicate with him. I don’t get it.”

Karna sighed, and a melancholy look shadowed his handsome features. Arjuna shook. There were a couple times when Arjuna had witnessed his brother all by himself in the furthermost corner of the garden, wearing that same expression. However, soon as Arjuna approached him with child-like concern, he always brushed it off by saying he had been daydreaming. “So that’s mean Mother hasn’t told you anything. I guess it makes sense that she wants to keep it a secret from everyone, even her children. I was, and never will be a source of pride for her.”

“But why? You’re her firstborn before any of us.”

Karna quietly undid the clasp that held his tunic, exposing his chest. Arjuna’s eyes widened. Though he had never seen Karna’s body before, he knew there was something that should not be on his chest, or any human chest for that that matter. His chest was pale as the rest of him, and in the center was a ruby-like jewel the size of a maiden’s palm. The skin around it was veiny and it looked like the damned thing was embedded into his flesh and had taken root in his heart. Should it be removed, so was Karna’s heart.

“What is this? How did you get such a thing?”

“Consider it the first and final gift from my father.”

“Your father? Didn’t he pass away when you were born?”

That was what their mother had told Arjuna and his younger siblings, whose father was a prince from the neighboring country. Karna had been fathered by a different man and so, much as Arjuna hated to admit, the differences between Karna and the rest of them were not only physical.

“He died, yes, that much was the truth, or half of it. What she never told a soul was who, or rather what he was. He was a dragon, Arjuna, the same as the beast that abducted me, and the same as Siegfried now. That makes me half-dragon.”

“Impossible!” Arjuna barked. “No, it can’t be true. I can’t believe it!”

He didn’t say Karna was making this up, for his brother never lied. The only thing that was a lie was this truth itself.

“It is true, Arjuna. Have you ever wondered why our country is much more prosperous and stronger than our neighbors even though we’re geographically challenged? Why our weapons are sharper and our chariots sturdier? It’s a secret of the queen alone. Our mother did the unthinkable: she made a pact with my father, a dragon terrorizing the east, so that he would give her all his treasure in exchange for her firstborn. Our mother was clever, and she found a unique loophole. That was how I was conceived.”

As Karna spoke, Arjuna stayed silent. When the initial shock had passed, he felt strangely calm. No more emotional outbursts, just a stillness that allowed the undeniable truth to slowly sink in.

“Arjuna,” Karna said, placing his hand on Arjuna’s, “you should now understand that I don’t belong in the palace, much less on the throne. What would the people think once they found out the truth about their king? There would be an uproar, no doubt, and the country would be in jeopardy.”

“That’s so unfair,” Arjuna muttered, almost to himself.

“Besides, I’m not fitted to be a ruler since I lack the charisma and the mindset to be one. You, on the other hand, have all of them. It’s only natural that you inherit the throne. Mother should wish it so.”

Then he smiled and patted Arjuna on the head, and the young prince suddenly felt like a young boy in front of his older brother whom he adored. “There, there. Be kind and be just. Be a good king to your people.”

Karna’s voice in his ears sounded so far away, almost an echo.

“What about our mother? What about our family, our siblings?”

 _What about me?_ He didn’t dare say.

Arjuna was on the verge of shedding his tears, because a little boy could be forgiven to cry. His vision got blurred, distorted. He brought a hand up to wipe his forming tears.

Karna looked pained and for a second, it seemed Arjuna’s question had touched the bottom of his heart and he was wavering. But a sharp glint appeared in his clear eyes, and he signed yet it was a sigh of resolution. “It would be better if you thought that I was dead.”

Something in Arjuna shattered and the sound was ringing in his ears. He stood up and the sudden movement knocked down the chair. “How could you say something like that?” he shouted, seizing Karna’s collar and bringing their faces closer. His eyes were seeing red, literally. “My brother would never say such an irresponsible and heartless thing! Are you really him or are you an impostor walking in his skin?”

“I’m truly sorry, Arjuna,” Karna said. “But I cannot go back with you. My place is here, with them.”

He emphasized the last word.

“Them?” Arjuna echoes, taken aback. Was there another one he had not seen?

There was some noise at the entrance of the cave. The noise was getting louder, indicating its source was entering the cave.

“I told him that you would never harm me, but it seems he hasn’t flown too far away, being overworried as always,” Karna said.

As if on cue, soon as Karna finished, a tall figure showed up at the edge of Arjuna’s periphery. His wings were folded and his tail relaxes, trailing on the ground. But his entire form tensed when his gaze landed on Arjuna’s tight fist on Karna’s collar. His iridescent eyes blazed up as though they could set Arjuna aflame with just a look. Tension was so thick it was almost visible.

Thus, a second showdown between man and dragon commenced.

It might feel long to the both of them, but in reality only a few seconds had passed before a yawn crumpled the heavy atmosphere. Arjuna was caught off guard and bafflement was written all over his comely features. His attention was attracted to what the dragon man was holding in his arm with a tenderness one wouldn’t think he possessed.

Not what, _who_.

Arjuna stared at the child secured in Siegfried’s arm, his need to blink forgotten. It hurt, and he thought if he stared any harder, his eyes might fall out of his sockets.

The child, so tiny in the crook of the dragon man’s arm one might overlook him, had a pale complexion – so pale it stood out in the dim light of the cave, with matching pale hair almost reaching his bare shoulders. The age was difficult to pinpoint, given his fat cheeks and winter-blue eyes which made up half of his face, but if Arjuna had to give a number, he would say about three or four. Around his lower eyelids was red makeup that highlighted his huge eyes and snow-colored skin tone. On others it might look weird, but on this child, it was nothing but natural. One could say it suited him to an unnatural level.

What startled Arjuna was not the child’s peculiar look, nor the fact that he was carried by a dragon; what made his eyes bulge was the kid’s uncanny resemblance to Karna. Like a miniature version of him plus a pair of wings, horns that just showed their curves and a scaly tail coiling around Siegfried’s forearm. He was playing with Siegfried’s hair, his tiny wings flapping gleefully.

Arjuna’s head was reeling. What the hell was going on?

He blurted out his thought.

“Please, Arjuna,” Karna said, “he may not understand what you’re saying but please refrain from using such language in front of a child.”

The child stopped playing with Siegfried’s hair once he spotted Karna and extended his chubby arms, which put an indulgent smile on Karna’s usual stoic features as he obliged him and got him from Siegfried. The child giggled and got a newfound interest in Karna’s dangling golden earpiece, the size of which was even bigger than his hand.

Standing close, Siegfried was looking at them with gentleness in his eyes. The raging flame in his irises had tamed down to a warming fire in the fireplace. Together they looked the perfect definition of a happy family despite their oddities. It hurt Arjuna to be the odd one out.

“I’d prefer a better circumstance for introduction but since you’ve met him, this is my child and thus, your nephew.”

“Ne-nephew?!” Arjuna stammered. “You mean, you and him-you. It-it can’t be!!”

It can’t be true. It can’t be true. It can’t be true. His thoughts were reduced to just one simple sentence and it repeated in his head like a damnable mantra. It can’t be true. His brother was a man, and so was Siegfried. What wicked sorcery had been involved to produce that playful little thing Karna so adored? Probably even more than his family, his own brothers. No, that breathing, giggling taboo couldn’t be Arjuna’s nephew. Never. He refused to accept him into his bloodline. Absolutely refused.

So much to process and so little time, and the result was Arjuna’s mind being overloaded. His vision blackened...

...

Arjuna jolted out of his dream. Covered in sweats, he scanned the place, getting his vision acquainted with darkness. He was relieved to know he was in his makeshift tent at the foot of the mountains. Tomorrow he was going to climb the mountains in search of the rumored dragon den. It was just a hunch but something told him Karna was alive and well, and he was there, waiting for Arjuna’s arrival. His gut feeling had never been wrong, almost like a sixth sense, and he trusted it as much as he trusted his bow and arrows.

It was a weird dream he had had, one whose unpleasant details were vivid and had left such an impact it almost felt real. Could it be a bad omen for his journey ahead? No. Arjuna shook his head and allowed the cool night winds to clear his mind. And then he pushed that absurd dream to the farthest corner and banish any of its remnants. He had a clear, definite goal and he would not let a dream hinder his path.

It turned out the dream wasn’t so insignificant as he had deemed it be; the next day the events unfolded just like in the dream, and every time a small detail was replicated with utmost precision, it made him shiver. Prophetic dreams were rare phenomena, and they held a deeper meaning than what appeared on the surface. It was just Arjuna was no expert in deciphering the hidden messages of dreams.

To Arjuna’s dismay, everything in his dream (should he say nightmare?) turned up in the reality, including the crazy fact that Karna now had a three-year-old son that was half dragon, half human. His brother spared him the bits about how they could have had a child together and whether Karna was the father or the mother; for that he was mildly grateful. He didn’t think he could handle the truth; ignorance was indeed a bliss.

Thanks to his dream, Arjuna had been better mentally prepared for the shocking truth, and did not fainted like his dream counterpart had. That was not saying he didn’t spend several minutes completely stunned and losing touch with reality. He couldn’t be blamed, though; it was not every day he got a dragon hybrid for a nephew. He got better, however, the worse still awaited him: Karna would not come back with him, no matter how Arjuna raged or pled. His place was with his new ‘family’, he was determined, not at a cold palace where he could read people’s hostile thoughts directed at him because he was different. Sad at it was, a part of Arjuna agreed with him. Another part, nonetheless, was too far gone for reason.

And so he parted with his brother with much reluctance and a fair amount of tension cackling between himself and his ‘brother-in-law’. His nephew remained oblivious and to the adults’ matters, happily giggling as he waved his tiny hand to bid Arjuna goodbye. Suppressing his aversion, Arjuna gingerly waved back. Laughters bubbled in the child’s tiny chest.

Never would Arjuna think the next time he got to see his nephew, if he ever saw him at all, he would be all grown-up. A couple months later, when the young prince traveled over forests and mountains because he missed his older brother and wanted to see him, all Arjuna found was an empty cave, void of its former furniture and occupants, and a goodbye plus sorry note.

“KARNA!!!”

His angry shout reverberated throughout the stone cave.

_End_

...

**Epilogue**

“I think I’m hearing your brother’s shouts.”

“... Has to be your imagination,” Karna replied. “We are so far away from him.”

They rarely traveled far from their cave, except when food and water was scarce, because travel was troublesome and dragons happened to be creatures with exceptionally strong attachment to their dwelling. When they had to leave it, it was due to a grave reason.

Now they were flying across the starry sky, with Siegfried in his dragon form and Karna riding on his back. Nighttime was perfect time for travel, as the night provided cover for his massive dragon body, which was far more convenient in carrying Karna plus their belongings than his human body.

“He must be furious, your brother,” Siegfried ‘said’, or rather communicated via the special bond forged between himself and Karna.

Karna sighed softly. “He rightfully is. Since we were young I wasn’t exactly a good brother to him, yet he looked up to me. He even came to my rescue, thinking I was in captivity. Now he must feel that I cold-heartedly disregard his feelings and cast him aside because I don’t need him.”

“But you don’t. You care about him as much as he does you. That I am sure.”

“It doesn’t matter. Now he probably hates me to the core.”

Siegfried detected a faint sadness veiling his tone. “You’re regretting?”

“No, it’s a painful but necessary thing to do. Arjuna will never betray us but there are many around him with their heart tainted by greed, and a dragon’s treasure is simply too alluring. They may follow him and eventually find our cave. I cannot afford any danger to us.”

“You will miss him.”

“I will, definitely,” said Karna, stroking the soft white hair of his son, who was peacefully snoozing on his father’s back. “But I have him and I have you.”

A warmth emitting from his body substituted Siegfried’s reply. Temperature tended to drop drastically during the night but he would never let Karna and their son got a sliver of chill. Karna felt a gentle rumble beneath the rough scales as he pressed his cheek to Siegfried’s back and listened to his heartbeats.

“The south should be warmer, with plenty of food, or so I heard,” Karna slurred. The warmth made him kind of sluggish and sleepy. He had been up for hours and now was much tempted by a sleep.

“Rest now. When you’re up, we should be in a total new land.”

_End_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s the end of this short story for my beloved pairing, originally a oneshot until I decided to split it. Thank you for reading it and leaving comments.
> 
> I leave the matter of who the mother of the child is in your hand.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve never thought one day I’d write Arjuna’s POV since he isn’t on my favorite list (mostly because he killed and beheaded Karna, who is on my favorite list; he did regret it later but his remorse won’t change the fact). And yet here I am, writing Arjuna’s POV.
> 
> Karna has psychic abilities and it will be explained in the second part.
> 
> I apologize for not focusing on one fic and finishing it.


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